Last year Bank of England governor Mark Carney said huge amounts of coal, oil and gas could be left “virtually unburnable” by new rules to curb global warming.

Fink indicated Blackrock would be supportive of future moves to encourage more focus on long term strategies. Many companies had not “educated” investors of the threats to their business model, he said.

“In those cases, Blackrock’s corporate governance team will support activist plans. During the 2015 proxy season, in the 18 largest US proxy contests (as measured by market cap), Blackrock voted with activists 39% of the time.”

Seb Beloe, a partner at London-based asset managers WHEB said the comments were “significant and important” given Blackrock’s status.

“I hope that it give the impetus to CEOs who know that this is a sensible course of action but have not done so because they have been looking over their shoulder at their investors,” he said.

“Now one of their biggest investors is telling them to stop quarterly guidance and focus on long-term strategic issues – let’s hope this is the nudge that they needed.”